[Durham INC] Nov/Dec minutes

[Pat Carstensen]

November/December
Delegate Meeting

Herald
Sun Community Room

December
8, 2009
 

Attending the meeting were:

 

Delegates and Alternates

Bill Anderson - Duke Park

Rosemarie Kitchin - Falconbridge          


Craigie
Sanders - Grove Park

Mike
Brooks -- Parkwood

Jeane
Bross – Lakewood Park                
      

David
Harris - Old Farm

Brett Walters – Old West Durham

Myers
Sugg - Tuscaloosa-Lakewood

Mike
Woodard -- Watts Hospital

Moe
Rivera -- OND

Cheryl
Shiflett -- Northgate Park  

 

Visitors

Pat Carstensen - Cross County

Lloyd
Schmeidler -- 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness

 

Announcements

Cheryl
announced the next PAC2 meeting will have as main program a representative from the District Attorneys office, either Tracey CLine or an Assistant DA, to help PAC2 members learn how to follow a case through the court system.  It is extremely complicated to say the least and we need a roadmap to understand how cases progress.  Meeting starts at 6pm and programs usually start at 6:45 pm.Pat's neighborhood is facing a big (150 kids) pre-school on too little space (less than 2 acres) on a high-traffic road.  One bit of advice is to look carefully at the plans to make sure they are meeting all the requirements.Craigie expressed thanks to Nancy Cox and Cathy Abernathy on education issues/presentations, to Bill Anderson and Rosemarie Kitchin for work on Executive Committee and Hero Awards, to Moe and Cheryl also on Hero Awards, and to Myers and Colin for their roles.
Presentation on Homelessness
Lloyd Schmeidler talked about why to end homelessness: basic human rights, therapeutic value of having a home, and the lower cost to the public (having long-term homeless in permanent housing is estimated to cut the cost 25%).  The issue is clearly complex; too many folks in Durham pay more than 33% of their income for housing, which puts them in danger of homelessness.  Lloyd talked about the statistics on the homelessness census (http://www.durhamtenyearplan.com/facts.shtml).  In general, about 1/2 the homeless surveyed have IDs showing them being from some other county, but that seems to reflect the fact they don't update their ID since most seem to have been here a while.  Lloyd passed out a list of ways to get involved and said he would be happy to come to a neighborhood meeting.

By-laws Changes
Clean and marked-up versions were available.  You can also get them from the website.

The meeting adjourned to cake and cookies and conversation.










Note:  We didn't approve the October minutes, and there are a couple small corrections:

October
Delegate Meeting

Herald
Sun Community Room

October
27,2009

 

Meeting
was called to order by Craigie Sanders at 7:05pm.

 

Attending the meeting were:

 

Delegates and Alternates















Erin Kennedy
 - Colonial Village

Rebecca
Board – Downing Creek            

Bill
Anderson - Duke Park

Rosemarie Kitchin - Falconbridge

Joe Chambliss and Jay Levy - Forest Hills            

Craigie
Sanders - Grove Park

Jim
McDonald – Hope Valley

Jeane
Bross – Lakewood Park

Mike Shiflett - Northgate Park                        

Fred Foster-Old
Farm

Nancy Gallman – Old West Durham

Myers
Sugg and Susan Sewell - Tuscaloosa-Lakewood

Scott Carter - Woodcroft      

 

Visitors

Sue
Dayton and David Mickey – Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

Lynwood Best and Earl Phillips - City of Durham

Pat Carstensen - Cross County

Sandra
Reddish – DSS

Bob
Ashley – Herald Sun

Carolyn
Kreuger       -
Kids Voting Durham      

 

Announcements 

Bill
Anderson presented a plaque to Bob Ashley of the Herald-Sun in appreciation of
their hospitality of providing a place to meet.  Starting in January, we will be meeting elsewhere.

 

November
and December meetings will be combined into a mostly-holiday party on December
8th.  Please come and
bring something to share.

 

Sandra
Reddish spoke about November being Adoption Month.  There are 234 kids in foster care in Durham County; of these
20 are in the process of being adopted and 20 more are available for adoptions.
She would love to talk to neighborhood meetings, they are looking for mentors,
and with holidays coming up, you can provide gifts.  Her contact info is sreddish at durhamcountync.gov or
560-8080.

 

Kids
Voting still needs volunteers at some sites for the November 3 election.  All the candidates responded to the
kids’ questionnaire and were going to be at the candidate forum.

 

Lynwood
Best reported the there will be a landlord training session on November 7.  Also they are still looking for more
groups to do ComNet.

 

There
will be a meeting for DO Transit on November 4.

 

Presentations:

 

Contamination from Dry Cleaning Establishments – Sue Dayton of Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League (BREDL) gave a presentation.  BREDL started 25 years ago in response
to a proposal for a nuclear waste dump and has been working since then on
polluting industries affecting communities.  Their site on dry cleaning solvents is: http://www.bredl.org/drycleaningsolvents.htm

 

PERC
was introduced as a dry cleaning solvent in 1934, but really took off in the
1960’s.  It is really efficient (1
55 gallon drum cleans 8 tons of clothes), but it and its by-products are pretty
nasty stuff (affecting reproduction, neural system, liver, etc.).   EPA says it is “toxic, volatile, persistent, and
bio-accumulating.  There are over
2000 sites with PERC issues in NC. 
Most of the contamination is from establishments that were careless, not
any bad faith).  Durham’s geology
makes clean-up especially hard.  

 

The
Dry Cleaning Solvent Clean Up Act (DSCA) of 1997 established a fund to clean up
solvent, paid for with a tax on the chemicals and dry cleaners.  Unfortunately, it is underfunded for
the need, has a limit of $1M per site, minimizes the danger instead of cleaning
it up, and has no compensation for neighbors whose property is affected.  

 

Other
states are suing and mandating phase-outs.  What you can do is buy clothes that don’t need dry-cleaning,
choose wet-cleaning for clothes you can’t wash, and work to ban PERC.

 

Old
Business – Proposed By Laws Change

Mike
Shiflett moved and Bill Anderson seconded that we wait until January to take
final action on the by laws.  This
passed.

 

Jay
Levy moved and Mike Shiflett seconded to drop Section 7 (about
attendance).  This passed
unanimously.

 

There
will be a final report (in 2 versions, one showing changes and one a clean
copy) on the website.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 9:15pm.
 		 	   		  
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